Thanks for joining us today and throughout 2018.

It's been great fun and we'll do it all over again from Wednesday 2 January.

Scroll down for our mini-review of the 5 Things We Learned This Year, plus Obama lays down some tasty vocals to a new Hamilton track and Miley gives a feminist spin to a festive classic.

Speaking of which, this week's Radio 2 brekkie show guest Olly Murs will now play us off with another sledge-hammer of Christmas singalong (above).

All the best.

Image source, Getty Images

What can we say about 2018?

It's been an entertaining if not confusing old year, hasn't it?

It was the year in which this picture (above) was taken...

Also it was the year in which Stormzy took the UK by, well, erm... storm! He became the poster boy for political protest and was announced to headline next summer's Glastonbury. Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize as well and and rock music took on a female face.

We also lost a lot of legends but learned that the future of British music is safe in the hands of the next generation of millennial artists.

So here is a quick compilation of things we've discovered over the past 12 months of Music News LIVE.

Strap yourselves in folks for a speedy ride down the M-2018...

1. Music officially got 'woke'

Politics is always bubbling under the surface within the music world but in 2018 it totally erupted.

The year began with calls from music union PRS to make all festival lineups 50/50 gender equal by 2022. Many festivals signed up to the scheme and in December Primavera Sound in Barcelona claimed to have achieved the feat before the year was out.

Elsewhere Stormzy used his live TV performance at the Brit Awards, to take the government to task over their handling of the Grenfell tower fire, which 72 killed people.

He rapped: Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell?

Watch above as the bare-chested rain-drenched grime star produced one of the most memorable music moments of many a year, which even brought a response from Number 10.

The 25-year-old would later go on to tackle inequality in the education system by launching a Cambridge scholarship for black students.

Image source, Childish Gambino/YouTube

On the other side of the Atlantic, Childish Gambino took a similarly spectacularly swipe at authority via his powerful control satire, This is America.

The video for the track sees the singer/rapper/actor dancing merrily while mowing down a choir with a gun, in response to a spate of shootings.

It broke all previous YouTube records and has now been viewed nearly 450m (that's MILLION) times.

On a similar theme, British singer Elly Jackson aka La Roux described US TV network Fox's decision to use her song Bulletproof to soundtrack their segment on bulletproof school clothing for kids, as "abhorrent."

And of course we couldn't move on without mentioning Kanye.

Aside from bigging up his "brother" Donald Trump at every opportunity, the rapper caused a stir by claiming in a TV interview with TMZ that slavery was "a choice."

He later rolled back on the remarks in a series of seemingly never-ending tweets.

2. The spotlight fell on female artists (and Kendrick)

The year began with the Grammy awards, comprehensively dominated by Bruno Mars and comprehensively covered by Music News LIVE.

The ceremony also hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, however, as women were effectively shut out of the main awards.

Stars like Lady Gaga, Kesha, Lorde and SZA were overlooked, with only 17 trophies out of a total of 86 going to women or female-fronted bands.

It led to a call for greater gender diversity and saw the Recording Academy set up a task force to address the issue after their own president Neil Portnow told female artists they simply had to "step up" (he later apologised).

It seemed to work and when the 2019 Grammy nominations were announced earlier this month, women dominated the biggest category; album of the year, and there were multiple nominations for country star Brandi Carlile and rapper Cardi B.

We'll see if any of those nominations come to fruition in January 2019.

Elsewhere, Taylor Swift won a record-breaking 22 American Music Awards, surpassing Whitney Houston as its most decorated female artist.

She used her speech to urge Americans to vote in the US midterm elections, having publicly nailed her colours to the Democrat mast for the first time.

"Get out and vote," said Tay Tay, "I love you guys.”

In the UK, Wolf Alice - fronted by Ellie Rowsell (above) - picked up the Mercury Prize, with Dua Lipa crowned queen of the Brits, winning two awards, and dedicating her speech to female empowerment.

"I want to thank every single female who has been on this stage before me," said Dua, "that has given girls like me a place to be inspired by and look up to and have allowed us to dream this big.

"Here’s to more women on these stages, more women winning awards, and more women taking over the world."

Image source, Getty Images

Back to the US again and rapper Kendrick Lamar continued his ascent, becoming the first non-classical or jazz artist to collect the Pulitzer Prize for music, external.

"It shines a light on hip-hop in a completely different way," said Dana Canedy, administrator of the Pulitzer Prize.

"This is a big moment for hip-hop music and a big moment for the Pulitzers."

Image source, Joanna Kiely

3. British acts are in bloom

In May we tipped six rising stars, including Dream Wife, The Orielles and Mahalia, to blow your socks off at the BBC's four country-spanning Biggest Weekend and they didn't let us down.

Mahalia even ended up on the corporation's Sound of 2019 list.

Idles scored BBC Radio 6 Music's album of the year gong and plenty more emerging acts were discovered down by the Brighton seaside at the Great Escape festival.

And thanks in part to our new weekly feature Newbie Tuesday, we were able to bring you interviews with some more of the most exciting new artists around, such as 2019 Brit Awards critics' choice winner Sam Fender (below), Lewis Capaldi and footballer/pop star Chelcee Grimes.

Although technically not a new band, the Arctic Monkeys were barely recognisable when they returned with their first new album in five years in the form of the space jazz rock effort, Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino.

It became clear that the Monkeys are no longer just four lads from Sheffield.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

4. Cardi B hit the big time

You could not go anywhere in 2018 without hearing the name Cardi B.

Born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, the one-time stripper turned hip hop megastar was everywhere.

The New York rapper had three number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 2018, following on from the success of last year's Bodak Yellow - which made her the first solo female rapper to top the US charts since Lauryn Hill nearly twenty years ago.

Her debut album Invasion of Privacy, released in April, debuted at number one in the US and went top 5 in the UK and broke several streaming records along the way.

Every one of its 13 tracks is now certified gold (500,000 sales) in the States.

In the space of a year, Cardi smashed up the charts (and the rule book), got married to fellow rap star Offset - of Migos fame - twerked onstage pregnant and had a baby girl called Kulture, before returning to the stage and then separating from her hubby/baby daddy, who later put on a very public display of affection in a bid to get her back.

She got into a beef with fellow rapper Nicki Minaj, which culminated in Cardi attempting to throw a shoe at her during New York fashion week.

And won three AMAs, three MTV awards, two BET Awards and a Billboard Music Award. She also now has five chances of winning her first solo Grammy in January - a fact she found out about while attending a court hearing over charges stemming from a fight in a strip club last summer.

And you thought you had a busy year.

Added to all that, Cardi has also just made her Carpool Karaoke debut in a video which has more than 16.7m views so far on YouTube.

Image source, Getty Images

Other high achievers in 2018 were - predictably - Drake and Ed Sheeran, whose combined might continued to sweep away all that came before them.

As well as creating an ill-advised craze for people to dance outside their moving cars, Drake ended the year as the most streamed artist, thanks to his double album Scorpion, whilst Ed wrapped up up his mammoth world tour

It earned more in 2018 than any other artist in 30 years, grossing an eye-watering $432m in ticket sales.

Ed's outgoings on clothes however remained minimal and he was given a dressing down online by Beyonce fans for not dressing up to perform alongside her at a benefit gig for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg.

Image source, Getty Images

And finally...

5. The Queen of Soul is dead (long live the Queen of Soul)

In August, we lost Aretha Franklin to pancreatic cancer at the age of 76.

Her funeral, which we covered live, was attended by the likes of Ariana Grande, and her good friends Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson - who all performed in her honour.

Watch Ari' belting out Natural Woman at the Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit below.

In other sad news, Ariana's ex, rapper Mac Miller died of a drug overdose in his Los Angeles home in September, aged just 26, with Ariana later honouring him too in her song Thank U, Next, calling him an "angel."

Scott Hutchison, of Scots indie band Frightened Rabbit, died in May, having apparently taken his own life at the age of 36.

Pete Shelley's ode to unrequited young love, Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) soundtracked many a teenage love affair and The Buzzcocks' frontman died in December, aged 63, of a heart attack at his adopted home in Estonia.

Fellow northern post-punk icon Mark E Smith died at the age of 60, while much-loved cockney crooner Chas Hodges passed away aged 74.

Dolores O'Riordan was one of the best known Irish singers of the past twenty years through her work with the band The Cranberries. She was found unresponsive in her hotel room in January of this year, the victim of an accidental drowning due to alcohol intoxication.

Following her death, her bandmates announced they will release their final album In the End in 2019 and will then disband.

The year also saw the deaths of rappers Craig Mack and XXXTentacion - who, following his murder in Florida at the age of 20 had a subsequent US number one album and is one of 2018's most streamed artists.

The dance world also came together to pay tribute to Swedish DJ Avicii, who is thought to have taken his own life back in April.

The death of the 28-year old DJ - whose real name was Tim Bergling -kicked off a discussion around mental health which called for greater support for people who work within the music industry.

Image source, Getty Images

In just a few hours time, we will have the name of the holder of this year's Christmas number one slot.

But who are the runners and riders this year?

Here are the three favourites...

Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next has held the top slot for the past five weeks with her ode to self-love and tribute to her ex-boyfriends.

Although, she could unseat herself with her more recent track, Imagine, which is also expected to land a high spot.

Ava Max's Sweet But Psycho is in there too.

It's the US singer-songwriter’s third single, which is fast work given her debut was only released in April this year.

And then there's Ladybaby; the alter ago of Nottingham YouTuber Mark Hoyle and his novelty track We Built This City on Sausage Rolls (a spoof of Starship's 1985 soft-rock classic).

Musically, it is not perhaps to everyone's taste but it's for a very good cause, all proceeds will go to food bank charity The Trussell Trust.

It's something of a dark horse and earlier this week, our music reporter Mark Savage explained why the odds are stacked against it.

Will he be forced to eat his words?

Image source, Getty Images

Music streaming service Spotify has settled a US legal action accusing it of infringing the rights of songwriters and publishers.

Wixen Music Publishing had sought $1.6bn (£1.3bn) in damages for what it argued was the infringement of more than 10,000 songs.

The California-based firm represents artists such as Neil Young (pictured above) and The Black Keys.

The case was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Spotify reached a reported $30m settlement with the National Music Publishers Association in 2016 over similar claims.

Read more

Here's another early present for your stockings; a newly-released video of Elton John's 1974 Christmas Show at Hammersmith Odeon in London, which was broadcast on the BBC on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

The singer and his band covered The Beatles' psychedelic classic Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Fair to say that Elt gives it a fair crack of the whip, in a fairly psychedelic outfit of his own.

The cover was actually released as a single featuring mysterious guest musician Dr. Winston O’Boogie.

Who could that have been? Answers on a postcard to "Dear John..."

Image source, Getty Images

Nicki will include dates in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow when she hits the road in March next year, supported by Chicago rapper Juice WRLD.

It's been described as a "fully immersive Queen experience".

“I have been carefully crafting the most exhilarating, unique, memorable piece of art to share with my incredible fans," said Nicki, adding she is "so stoked" with her touring partner.

The full tour dates (complete with love heart eyes emojis) are below

Image source, Universal

It's that time of the year when music industry types like to make predictions about who will be hot over the next 12 months.

The BBC picked their Sound of 2019 longlist, while YouTube selected their 'ones to watch', which featured north east songwriter-turned-singer Olivia Devine (who shares her name with an adult movie star).

We caught up with her after she performed her first ever real gig as L Devine - complete with space hype woman - last month and she told us about the battle to have her voice heard in songwriters rooms.

"Males in writing rooms can sometimes dominate it and think that they know best sometimes," she declares.

"I definitely feel like I have to prove myself more as a women, in writing rooms especially and I have to speak up a bit so that I'm heard."

The hotly-tipped 21-year-old also answered some of our questions based on the song titles of her new mixtape, Peer Pressure.

Watch above and read more.

We've got a bagful of musical goodies for you here, seeing as you've all been so good reading MNL all year.

First up as your main present is the return of Dido with the lead single from her upcoming album, Still On My Mind - which will be her first in six years.

Check out Friends above.

Next up is a little stocking filler from Cigarettes After Sex, in the form of Neon Moon (above).

If this sounds familiar then it might be as the band featured on the soundtrack to Killing Eve, which we highly recommend you check out this Christmas if you haven't already.

The ambient lo-fi act released their self-titled debut album last year.

Image source, Getty Images

And last but not least is the new one from Ally Brooke, a former member of US X-Factor creation Fifth Harmony.

The title of her new single, The Truth is in There, flies in the face of years of X-Files research.

We just wonder whether she can do as good a British accent as former bandmate Camila Cabello?

BBC Radio 3

John Merrick from Gloucester has been named as this year's winner, for his musical accompaniment to The Bee Carol, a new poem by Poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy.

A record number of amateur composers from across the UK submitted entries to the competition.

Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny announced the winner on the Breakfast programme this morning before the winning composition was performed by the BBC Singers.

You can listen to John's piece above.

His composition will also be played throughout Christmas Day on the station.

Santa Baby, I don't any fancy jewellery, not me / I've got something else in mind Santa Baby / And I don't need your presents tonight

Christmas song puritans will notice these aren't the traditional lyrics to kick off Eartha Kitt's 1953 song, Santa Baby.

Miley joined Jimmy Fallon (and Mark Ronson in a matching blazer and roll neck) on his show and took a distinctly more pro-feminist slant on the song, which you can watch above.

She also recently altered the lyrics to her version of John Lennon's Happy Christmas (War is Over), when she performed it, external with his son Sean Ono-Lennon.

Merry woke Christmas everybody.

Image source, Getty Images

Lin-Manuel Miranda has released a remixed version of a song from his hit musical Hamilton, featuring former US president Barack Obama.

One Last Time (44 Remix), which appeared yesterday on his final 2018 episode of the HamilDrop series, sees Obama provide a spoken word interlude; a recital of some of George Washington's farewell address from 1796.

Washington was the first president of the US, while Obama spent eight years in the Oval Office before being succeeded by Donald Trump in 2016.

During his time as president, big music fan Obama grabbed the mic in public on plenty of occasions to belt out tunes, external by Al Green, Aretha Franklin and the American classic, Amazing Grace.

Image source, Getty Images

The singers performed at the SSE Arena in north-west London on Thursday night in aid of the rough sleepers charity, Streets of London.

Ellie's support for the charity began when she played a fundraising show at Shepherd's Bush Empire in December 2014. She has since become a patron and her annual events have raised more than £300,000.

Here's a few snaps of performances from the likes of Ellie, Dua and Olly from Years & Years, as well as Clean Bandit and Dan from Bastille, as well some tweets from those who were there...

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Some new music now, Sam Smith's new track, Fire on Fire is taken from the BBC & Netflix adaptation of Watership Down.

In case you don't remember the original it's about a group of rabbits fighting to survive on the mean streets/fields of southern England and features the voices of James McAvoy and John Boyega,

It airs on BBC One in two parts on 22 and 23 December.

Check out the track below.

Sam spent most of this year touring his 2017 album, The Thrill of it All including a performance at the BBC's Biggest Weekend.

Image source, Getty Images

Despite being known as the 'greatest show on the earth' there were reports earlier this week that Maroon 5 were struggling to find support acts to join them for their Super Bowl half-time show in February in Atlanta.

This was an apparent show of solidarity towards NFL players, including Colin Kaepernick, who has been effectively pushed out of the game since taking a knee during the pre-match national anthem in protest at the treatment of black people in America.

Now, however, TMZ and Variety are reporting that hip hop star and Kylie Jenner's beau,Travis Scott, has been added to the bill.

Image source, Getty Images

The US band (above) are said to be in talks with fellow rappers Cardi B and Big Boi, with other announcements due soon.

Cardi, Bruno Mars, Post Malone and local lads Migos are all in town ahead of the sporting event to play a fringe Super Bowl music festival, external.

Earlier this year, Justin Timberlake honoured Prince during his Super Bowl gig in the late purple man's hometown Minneapolis.

Back to Trav, and in case you were wondering the Astroworld star has also told Rolling Stone, external mag that he and Kylie will "get married soon."

Image source, Getty Images

But, according to Beyonce experts and SZA herself, most of the 'new' songs are demos and have been around as bootlegs for several years.

The Bey tracks were released on to streaming services under the name Queen Carter.

The 10-track album, entitled Have Your Way, was followed by a second album, also running to 10 tracks, called Back Up, Rewind.

Both compiled old songs, demos and unreleased music but fans have pointed out they have been in circulation on the internet for some time, many for over a decade.

Lost Yo Mind was a bonus track on the iTunes edition of B’Day, produced by Swizz Beats while the track Black Culture - from the Sasha Fierce sessions, samples Michael Jackson’s Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough and has been circulating online since at least 2015.

Keep Giving Your Love To Me was released on the Bad Boys II soundtrack in 2003.

The music was taken down overnight and there's been no comment from Bey.

The SZA music also turned out to be a leak of older unreleased music.

Titled Comethru, the nine tracks were uploaded to Apple Music and Spotify on 4 December under the name Sister Solana.

Some tracks are said to have featured Kendrick Lamar, billed under his regular pseudonym King Kenny.

SZA confirmed the leak on her Instagram story, writing: "These are random scratches from 2015.

"Def not new new! But... creative? And scary?"

Her boss, Punch, the head of Top Dawg Entertainment, also confirmed the songs were "stolen and leaked" urging fans to continue to enjoying her debut album CTRL until the new one is released.

Morning all and welcome to the final Music News LIVE of 2018.

It's casual Friday and we've brought some games in for later (and chocolate).

We hope you've done the same.

Coming up:

• Unauthorised Beyoncé and SZA albums appear online
• New Music Friday: Sam Smith, Dido, Cigarettes After Sex and former Fifth Harmony star Ally Brooke
• MIley Cyrus puts a feminist spin on an Xmas classic
• Barack Obama is a guest star on a new Hamilton mixtape
• Maroon 5 find their Super Bowl support artist
• Plus 5 Things We've Learned This YEAR

First though, check out Clean Bandit's seasonal Live Lounge gift of a Mariah/Ace of Base mashup in full (above) and we'll get up and running for one last time.